Tear ducts

As I mentioned in my last post, Rolin had a surgical procedure Friday to open his tear ducts. Things went fine and he seems just about back to normal today. 

In the prep room, wearing his "one size fits none" hospital gown. They even gave him little hospital socks with the grippers on the bottom.

Poor baby didn't know what was coming.

We had to check in at 6 a.m. and were there until about 10:30 a.m. or so. We stayed about an hour and a half longer than expected as he had a rougher than expected recovery from the anesthesia. I wouldn't have been able to tell you that on my own, but the nurses and doctors kept saying so. 

I know everyone's prayers helped with our nerves -- I felt just fine the whole time. Tears were shed though: mostly tears of joy that it worked and he woke up, but they were mixed with a little sadness for how mad, sad and completely out of it Rolly was in recovery, and how hard it was to get him to calm down at first. Plus, it was sad seeing blood in his tears and coming from his nose. 

Snuggles were about all that helped. 

I also had an unfortunate snot-string incident happen when the ophthalmologist came to chat with us again... I said, "oh I'm fine..." [wipe nose with hand...something comes away with hand...doctor and husband give  me a 'ew, gross' look...someone hands me a tissue]. But I suppose I'm not the first mom he's seen in that situation. At least I'd like to think that. 

I was pleasantly pleased with the way the ophthalmologist, anesthesiologist and the recovery room nurses kept coming by to check on him and explain things to us. He had to wear an oxygen mask on and off for a while to get numbers back up to a good level. Things were looking ok so we thought we'd go, but then the nurse asked if I was sure about three times, which made me think I wasn't, so we stayed longer. I'm glad we did. After another 20 mins or so, his numbers were even better and he stayed awake on his own for about five minutes. By that time you could tell the nurses felt better about his status, which, of course, made me feel a lot more comfortable going home. 

He slept most of the day away, ate a little bit and played a little before bedtime. On top of all his daytime sleep, he slept from 8:30 p.m. to 5:22 a.m. in his room. Tired babe! He still has some blood-tinged boogs and tears today, but he really seems back to his normal, active self. 

Snuggled with the bear the hospital gave him. He carried it around and hugged it all day. So sweet!

Couch cuddles are uncommon since he's usually on the move, so we enjoyed a day of snuggles with the little bug. 

What they did: They put little tubes in both of his ducts that go down into his nose. The tubes poke through the membrane in the duct that was either completely blocking the duct or was just making it a tight squeeze for the eye goop and tears to drain properly (so he had a goopy, crusty eye most of the time). They'll either work their way out or be taken out in three months. Hopefully that does the trick and we don't have to go back in to try again or try something different. 

When we were there, we met a family with a 14-mo-old boy. This was his eighth surgery. Eighth! The sweet little love. He was born with Spina Bifida, something they didn't know until he was born. They were in good spirits, considering, and were joking a bit about how on top of everything, their baby had bad tear ducts too. I wish we could have chatted with them more -- they seemed like a strong, kind couple. 

Milk!

Guess what! We had Rolin tested and discovered he is a 0 on a scale of 0-10 allergic level to milk protein! Yahoo! Praise God!

I'm both ashamed and proud to say we chose mac n' cheese as his first milk meal. He wasn't very in to it...I think because of the noodles. The last time he ate noodles willingly was the night before he woke up with diarrhea :(

It wasn't any trouble at all to switch him from almond milk to dairy. I think he likes milk more than anything right now, especially because he's teething and not the biggest fan of chewing.

We're easing into other milk products -- he'll eat yogurt like it's going out of style, but isn't a huge cheese fan. Either way, now that he can have dairy there are many more options for meals, and we don't have to pack a meal for when we're going out to eat or we might be running errands into the lunch hour (although I still haven't stopped doing that...it's a hard habit to break).

We'd like to ask that you keep our little bug in your prayers this week as he's having surgery Friday. He's had a clogged tear duct since before he was born and it just isn't opening on it's own. We started visiting doctors and getting ready to schedule the surgery before we even heard the word Arizona, but because of the timeline and our move south, we had to start over once we got to Arizona with a new ophthalmologist.

He'll be under anesthesia for 20-30 mins and we'll get to leave the hospital the same day. It's really more of a procedure, I suppose... and I'm doing my best not to be nervous about it, even though I have a good reason to be nervous. I had the same procedure done when I was 6-months old and had to be resuscitated. So. There's that. However, I trust the doctors, and they have confidence in the anesthesiologist at the hospital.

They say he'll have a bit of a bloody nose after, but that should be the worst of it. I'm sure he'll have a nice ice cream treat after dinner Friday night.

Spooky Eats

For the Halloween-timed e-newsletter I got to finally put together some Halloween-ish recipes! They're all inspired by Pinterest, but I made my own tweaks and edits to change them up a bit. I had fun making these!

Do you make anything special for Halloween?

Candy Corn Fruit Cocktail

Pineapple, Cantaloupe and Cottage Cheese Salad

(you could also use whipped cream, but the boss prefers something a little more healthy)

Inspired by this Pinterest post

Green Goblin Grins

Granny Smith Apples with Peanut Butter, Sliced Almonds and a Drizzle of Honey

Inspired by this Pinterest post

Mini Pumpkin Patch

Parsley-topped Carrots on a Bed of Spinach-Avocado Hummus

Inspired by this Pinterest post

Spicy Spider Eggs

Olive-topped Deviled Eggs with a Kick

Inspired by this Pinterest Post

Stuffed Jack-O-Peppers

Beef & Wild Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers

Inspired by Pinterest, adapted from CitronLimette.com.

Cooking pics

I've started doing most of the photography for the recipes I make for work. Justin was a good photography teacher! I've still got a long way to go to understand the camera...I usually just mess around with the settings until the picture looks good vs. adjusting the settings to a known good setting and then taking the picture.

I took a little break when we moved, but here are some of my latest creations:

Pappardelle Pasta with Sauteed Maitake Mushrooms, Chives and Parmigiano-Reggiano

Justin thought this one was really good. I really love pasta dishes that incorporate veggies (or mushrooms) that are sauteed and softened in a white wine until it's reduced. It makes for a nice light flavor.

Grilled Pear & Blue Cheese Crostini with Bacon and a Cranberry Pear Vinaigrette

Who doesn't like bacon on things? I'm glad I decided to sprinkle a bit on top -- it went really well with the blue cheese and pear. 

Crisp Asian Pear, Daikon & Avocado Salad with a Sicilian Lemon Vinaigrette

Someone had something similar at a restaurant in Vegas so we decided to see if I could recreate it at home. I was not excited to make or even try this dish, but it was surprisingly ok (mostly because of the lemon vinaigrette) and I got to use my mandoline slicer. I don't know that I'd make it on my own, but it turned out better than I anticipated.

Mixed Medley Tomato Bruschetta on Cheesy Garlic Crostinis

I have always enjoyed bruschetta, but every time I have bruschetta I can't help but think how much better it would be with cheese. So for this one I added some cheese. I do what I want! I also rubbed the toasts with garlic. I made and photoed this dish early in the morning...I'm not ashamed to say I ate it for breakfast.

Portobello Mushroom and Fresh Basil Pesto Pizza on Cornmeal Crust 

I used Red Fresno peppers instead of bell peppers (allergic!)...it gave the pizza a nice kick and helped the rest of the flavors stand up to the pesto, which I personally think can overpower a dish sometimes.

Spice-rubbed Pork Chops with a Pear-Ginger Chutney

Wooooeeee was this good! I adapted it from Cooking Light, with the biggest tweak being that I swapped apples for pears. I thought the cumin in the pork played nicely with the ginger in the chutney, and the rest of the ingredients were all well represented too. I like when you can taste all the flavors in a dish without one overpowering the other. 

Nails

One of the things I really don't like doing is cutting Rolin's fingernails. If you asked Rolin, he'd say one of his least favorite mommy + Rolin activities is having mommy cut his fingernails.

He hates it.

Probably more than I do.

Today, however, he did something to try to stop me. He picked up a rogue fingernail clipping, held it up for me to see and then suddenly lunged forward in an attempt to shove the clipping in my mouth.

I had been trying my best to secure him with one arm and clip his nails with another -- a position from which he was unable to escape. However, done with sly quickness, his shoving of the clipping allowed him to slip from my grasp.

It was one of the grossest, yet one of the most tactical, moves I've ever seen him make.

He's growing and getting smarter every day. He's a rascal, that one!

Troubling Ta Tas

In the midst of our move I developed a medical issue that turned out to be not an issue. And for that we can all thank the Almighty.

About two or so weeks before we moved, I called my OB/GYN to discuss some pain I'd been experiencing in my breast. It was a pain I tried to ignore, figuring it was something left over from breast feeding or it
was the result of the constant punching, smashing, slapping, stepping on, crushing, pinching, rump ramming or head butting my chest suffers from on a daily basis -- and all at the hands of the small child who used to find comfort and nourishment there. It's clear he has no memory of those days; you'd think he'd be more gentle with them if he knew that was his only source of food once upon a time.

Either that or he's upset with them. Let's just say he's forgotten.

Anyway.

Oh, and please prepare yourself. You'll be reading the word nipple a lot. Also breast. Also other words these parts of our anatomy go by.

Nipple.

See! I told you. Prepare yo'self.

So the pain started in the nip area on my right side. I ignored it for a few days until the pain spread. I started to get nervous, and I had a good reason to feel that way. I told Justin about it and we decided to wait three days to see if it would clear up on its own. It didn't. By that time the entire breast was sore and painful to touch, with a heavy dose of discomfort concentrated around the...umm...nipple. It was uncomfortable to hold Rolin (for reasons mentioned above), and even when lifting things I could feel some discomfort. I had had a few issues with clogged ducts and such while nursing, but this time it was different; plus I had no fever and felt fine otherwise, so I called the doc.

They were apparently concerned enough to get me in first thing the next day.

I was poked and prodded by the nurse. She kept apologizing, something I found to be ridiculously silly and annoying. I'd rather she make it awkward by taking a good, long, silent look while she felt around my
sad, deflated, post-nursing hoohaas instead of her saying sorry every 20 seconds. I wanted to say, "Get in there and study, lady! I expected to be violated!"

The nurse was puzzled. We both thought it'd be a clogged duct or something to do with mastitis even though I stopped nursing six months before, but the evaluation didn't point us in either direction. Instead, I left there with antibiotics (in case it was an infection of some sort) and instructions to go get a mammogram and a possible ultrasound on my right breast.

I managed to get in to have both the mammogram and the ultrasound Friday morning before we left for Rolin's birthday party in Grandview (this was another reason for rescheduling and rearranging party plans). The doctor in the mammogram center came in for a look as they too all figured the mammogram/ultrasound would show a clogged duct. It didn't. No one could see anything there (which is a good thing), but everyone was somewhat baffled by the pain, as well as some physical abnormalities (their word, not mine), such as more redness and a raised area, between the two breasts. They told me to call my doctor to discuss results and to get a referral to a breast surgeon for more evaluations. The radiology doc wouldn't go into any other detail beyond that.

Breast surgeon. That doesn't sound intimidating now, does it?

See, when the pain first arrived, I thought it may have been the result of some stress surrounding the move. Hormones are crazy, unbridled beasts, and, as the ladies will attest, totally unpredictable. I had a similar random pain in my ovarian area while working in Seattle...after tests turned up negative, my then doctor chocked it up to stress. I mentioned this to my doctor when I finally got to talk to her (and, oh, what a calming relief she was to talk to!), and she said stress and hormones could be a possibility. So we had a blood draw to check.

Everything was normal. Basically, we were back at square one. Well, sort of. A week later, the pain had somewhat dissipated, but I wasn't about to just pretend none of that happened. Better safe than sorry, ya know?

We were scheduled to move to Phoenix soon, so my doc suggested I get to Phoenix and then find an OB/GYN there to give me a referral to a breast surgeon. She also assured me that following up with a breast surgeon could be overkill, but, like I said, better safe than sorry.

Within our first week in Phoenix I visited an OB's office and got a referral to a breast surgeon. I had to wait another two weeks to get in to see him, but I finally did, with breast films, test results and all other information in tow.

By this time I was, and had been for a few weeks, virtually pain free. The doctor met with me in his office (just like in the movies, guys!) to go over the information I had and to discuss a few things before we went to the exam room. After a quick exam he told me it was a good thing I came in, but that everything is totally fine. Nothing to worry about.

The reason they had me check everything out is because generally women with nipple pain are in their 40-50s, not their 30s, and there is a type of cancer that can start and or camp out in the nipple that acts a bit differently than other breast cancers. Because the pain ceased, and because no one could spot anything at all in the mammograms or ultrasound, there was nothing more they had to look at or evaluate.

And since we're being honest here, I'll tell you that I pretty much stopped retaining what he said after that. He talked a bit about self exams, what was necessary and what wasn't so much anymore, but I was just glad to hear this doctor had no concerns at this time.

There. So now you know everything. It's been a wild few months for everyone, but things are beginning to get back to normal here in Phoenix. Hooray!

I'm still glad I went and covered all my basis with doctors and tests. Listen to your bodies, people. To quote my new OB/GYN, "We don't mess around with boobies!"

Weekend in Vancouver

Last weekend we traveled to Vancouver, Wash., for Justin's cousin's wedding.

I promise we'll stay in Arizona for more than a week at a time now...we don't have any more travels on our calendar for a few months. Hooray!

Passed out on puffs on the way to the airport.

The high temp in Vancouver all weekend was expected to be lower than the low temp in Phoenix. Follow that? I believe Washington also received record rainfall over the weekend. I was so glad I decided to bring a pair of leggings to wear with my dress for the wedding. I originally got them so my ultra-white legs wouldn't blind the bridal party, but they actually saved me the embarrassment of harming people with my goose-bumped, prickly legs. Sorry for that visual, but it's the truth.

We stayed with Justin's grandma during our trip. His parents joined also came for the weekend and his brother came down for the wedding. We all just hung out, ate food and enjoyed everyone's company while there. It was wonderful to see everyone and spend time together -- something that unfortunately doesn't seem will happen with much frequency anymore. It does make me sad that Rolly doesn't get to see some of his relatives very often, but I know most will come visit and, of course, we will get up there too when we get the chance! Washington will always be our home :)

Grandma hasn't been feeling well so Justin picked up a blood pressure cuff to double check things and help put her mind at ease a bit. 

Reading The Animals of Farmer Jones with Grandpa Lee.

 

We went to lunch at Burgerville in Vancouver. It was community appreciation day, and to celebrate they had some state patrol officers, Smokey the Bear and other members and services from the community present. There was also cake and crafts for the kids. Though he wasn't too sure about Smokey when we first arrived, Rolin was playing peekaboo with the bear by the end of our lunch. 

The wedding was at the Fairgate Inn in Camas. Rolin loved playing on the stairs and running around the big rooms in the front of the house. The ceremony was outside under a large, gorgeous tent, and the reception was inside in a cozy and warm great room with large windows and beautiful golden window treatments that made the room almost glow. The rain pouring down outside made it feel all the more romantic inside...perfectly lovely for a wedding, I think.

Team Thompson at the wedding ceremony. Please note Rolin doesn't always eat puffs, but they help keep him quiet and calm :)

Bride Megan and me.

We left early Monday morning and made it back to Phoenix in time to go to the DMV (wheeeee). We made it outta there just before Rolin went into meltdown mode. We were out of snacks, he was tired of the toys, Dinosaur Train on the tablet was no longer entertaining and he had a poopy diaper. Exactly what you'd want to deal with at the DMV, right? The good news is we are now officially licensed in the state of Arizona.

The face of anger and disappointment at the DMV.